Art In The Making: Playwrights' Center Introduces 2017-2018 Public Season

Playwright Jen Silverman workshopping Wink at the Playwrights’ Center as part of the 2016-17 Ruth Easton New Play Series. Photo by Bill Cameron.

Confession: I love the Playwrights' Center. It's a Minneapolis gem that has artistic impact worldwide. I go there as often as I can. Why?

A post shared by Artfully Engaging-Kendra Plant (@kendra.plant) on Sep 28, 2015 at 7:24pm PDT

I enjoy seeing how the theater sausage gets made. It's a unique experience for audience members to glimpse the inner workings of theater. At PWC's staged play readings, the actors typically read from scripts without the sets or full costumes that we would typically see in a fully staged play. It is exciting to see the theater artists (i.e. playwrights, dramaturgs, actors, and musicians) in action, script in hand, creating, playing, and testing their art form in front of new audiences. Being among the first people to ever experience a new play is a great honor.

There is even more to love about the experience: all of the work is free, so if I'm on a tight budget I can still enjoy interesting stories and great performances by local playwrights.

PWC also supports the work of living playwrights. More than 70 plays are developed with the support of PWC each year and eight are included as part of their public season. The PWC contributes to the vitality of the local, national, and global arts. PWC brings many artists to the Twin Cities and some of them are wooed by our theater scene, becoming transplants and valued members of our community. If you want to support brave new work on the American stage that's another great reason to donate. And playwrights at any stage, can take advantage of their classes, resources, and high quality online tools that focus on playwriting and the theater industry through membership. PWC has a membership of 2,000 playwrights worldwide.​

If you value innovation and collaborations with talented theater artists, I encourage you to visit the PWC website to learn more about their mission and how you can participate to their important work and sustain their legacy with a donation. 

Here's the 2017 public season, so make a reservation and clear your calendar; it's worth it!

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The Playwrights' Center 2017-18 season:

PLAYLABS (October 23-29):

• “A Humbling in St. Paul” by Alice Tuan
• “Take Care” by Jason Gray Platt
• “In the Time of the Volcano” by Jen Silverman

RUTH EASTON NEW PLAY SERIES:

• “The Overcoat: a musical for non musical people” by Kira Obolensky (December 4 & 5)
• “How The Ghost Of You Clings, The Anna May Wong Story” by John Olive (January 8 & 9)
• “Three Quarter Inches of Sky” by Sherry Kramer (February 5 & 6)
• “Tiny Houses” by Stefanie Zadravec (March 5 & 6)
• “the bandaged place” by Harrison David Rivers (April 9 & 10​)

More Info

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A post shared by Artfully Engaging-Kendra Plant (@kendra.plant) on Oct 12, 2015 at 4:29pm PDT

Playwright Jen Silverman on “In the Time of the Volcano” which is a part of Playlabs:
“The play is inspired by research I’ve done about a ‘cargo cult’ on Vanuatu (a Pacific Island nation) that worships a mysterious man named John Frum. The cult is thought to have been formed around an American soldier stationed briefly overseas; even the name John Frum is thought to be short for ‘John from America.’ In thinking about what it means to worship a man who might, essentially, be utterly ordinary, I also began to think about what it means for an ordinary man to be worshipped—especially in this current cultural moment, where our country is embroiled in a volatile conversation about white male power, privilege, and entitlement. I’m excited to spend my time at the Playwrights’ Center digging into the first draft, and asking both big-picture questions about how the play fits into our national conversation and small-picture questions about character arcs and play structure.”
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